Category Archives: 2013 reading challenge

How my 2012 Reading Challenge went

Well, my 2012 Reading Challenge didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped. I managed to read 11 of the 12 books, and when this gets posted up I should be partway through the last one, City of Golden Shadow, the first book in the Otherland series by Tad Williams. As for the reviews, I’m quite a bit further behind with those and there’s little to no chance of them being finished before the year is out. They’re staying on top of the backlog though and I’ll be finishing them up early next year.

While setting myself this challenge certainly pushed me to check out some new authors and get around to reading other books I felt that 12 was a little bit too many, especially when you consider that most of the ones I chose were part of a series. Generally if I enjoy a series I’d like to keep on reading through it until I start to get bored, which meant I finished reading 16 books before I finally started on the 3rd book on my list in late April (Storm Front, first of the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher). I then had to force myself to not continue on with a series just to try and catch up with my list, which then ended up dictating the majority of my reading material throughout the year. It didn’t help that I absolutely loved Storm Front, and if left to my own devices I would be at least 10 books deep into the series by now. I’d still like to make a point of reading certain books during the year, but I think I’m going to tone the list down to just 6 books that fall into general categories rather than 12 entirely new authors. Speaking of which…

My 2013 Reading Challenge

This time around I’m going to be reading whatever the hell I damn well feel like, since there’s no point in reading for enjoyment if you don’t end up enjoying it. I’ll still be setting myself a target, but it’ll just be 6 books that fall into 6 different categories. Some books on the list could technically end up under a different category, but as long as it somewhat fits then I’m happy with it. That’ll also give me the extra time to read the rest of the Dresden Files series, catch up with Terry Pratchett’s newbooks, read the latest Skulduggery Pleasant novel, along with the other series I got hooked this year through trying so many new authors.

Deceased author

Granted I could choose any story written in the early 20th century and it would often have been written by a dead author, but I’m thinking of those who’ve died more recently. I’m not going to place a hard limit on how far back I can go, but around the 1940s seems like a good rough target for now.

Ray Bradbury died earlier this year and while he had some very angry views on the subject of ebooks [link] he seems to otherwise have been very well-respected. Of the stories he’s written Fahrenheit 451 seems to come up the most when people talk about him, so that’s going to be the one I’ll be reading. Going from the blurb the book seems very similar in theme to 1984, dealing with a bleak, dystopian future where ideas are outlawed and free thought is heavily restricted. Considering it was written just 3 years after 1984 was published (and within just a few days if the tales are accurate), it’ll be interesting to see how the writing style and story compares.

Book I’ve had lying around for ages and haven’t read yet:

I tend to try and keep my pile of unread books low, but since using the Kindle, the numbers have really started to ramp up. I’m going to make a point of reading at least one of these this time around that I otherwise might not make time for. To make things a bit easier on myself, I’m only going to include stories I’ve got that aren’t available for free. There’s a lot of great free stories out there, but this is about books I’ve had an interest in and paid real cash money for, but never followed up in the end.

I’ve always had an interest in the development of the hacker culture over the decades and computer security in general. I followed the early days through Stephen Levy’s Hackers, and more recently followed the exploits of Kevin Mitnick in the 90s before his trial, then all the drama surrounding his actual trial when he was finally let out of solitary. The Cuckoo’s Egg follows the events that followed after what at first seemed like an accounting mistake, before rapidly evolving into a major international computing hacking scandal. It’s one of the earliest recorded examples of international computing funded by another country, which makes it pretty relevant to my interests.

Non-Fiction:

Sometimes it’s good to dig my head out of the realms of fantasy and read something based a bit more in reality. This will usually end up being a biography of someone who I’m really interested in, or a highly acclaimed work in some other area which sounds bloody interesting.

This is one of those books that everyone with even a casual interest in Physics has on their bookshelf, yet I’ve never got around to reading it myself. I did start to read it while I was at Derby University almost a decade ago, but stopped when I moved over to Stafford. Should be well-worth the read. As you can probably tell from the title, the book is an explanation of what’s known about the science behind time, space, the universe and everything. Ranging from topics like the Big Bang and the existence of black holes, to the possibility of more “out there” topics such as wormholes and time travel. It should certainly make for an interesting read.

Alternative Genre:

If my Goodreads list is anything to go by, then when I read fiction it’s pretty much always either Science-Fiction or Fantasy (or some sub-genre that combines the two). I try to read a non-fiction book every now and then, but that’s the exception rather than the rule. So I’m going to try reading something from a completely different genre to mix things up a little. There’s a pretty wide spread of popular genres out there, with Crime fiction seeming like the most popular if the number of adverts in train stations up and down the country are anything to go by, but this time around I think I’m going to try a little historical fiction.

I hadn’t heard of Flashman until I stumbled across it in the general fiction section at Waterstones about half a year back. After doing some research on (ie, Read Wikipedia) I learnt that it follows the story of a decorated war hero, renowned for his great military victories and acts of bravery. He’s a complete coward, cheating, swindling or just outright fleeing his way out of every encounter. He’s a bastardly bastard of a man and the exact sort of character who you don’t want to come out on top in any story. He was also the inspiration for Lord Flashheart from the Blackadder series. I’ve never really read historical fiction before (except maybe for Cryptonomicon which half-counts), and I’ve definitely never read a book with such an unlikable character as this one seems to be. Yet for some reason it intrigues me. I’m looking forward to seeing how such a series could star such an absolute dick of a character but still be as well-received as it is. Then again, I also couldn’t see how George R R Martin would make Jamie Lannister one of my favourite characters of the Song of Ice and Fire series, so I guess it’s all in the strength of the writing.

Classic:

For classic books I’m going to be reading any book that’s considered a “classic”, whether it’s something that helped define the genre like Dracula, or something that became infamous for the reaction it got after release, such as Catcher in the Rye which still manages to get banned from a school somewhere every year or so. The age of the book isn’t really a factor here as much as how much importance it’s had.

As far as the more well-known horror monsters go, Frankenstein is the one I know the least about. Going back and reading the original stories behind such famous horror figures tend to be a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand you have Dracula, which still stands up as a phenomenally well-written story. Then on the other hand you get stories like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, which for me ended up being a bit of a let down. I guess we’ll see how well this one holds up.

Author/Book I’ve been meaning to check out forever, but never get around to:

Pretty much what I did last year. There will always be more authors and books that I’ve never checked out before, but have been on my radar for some time, so this category will never run dry.

I’ve never read a single story written by Stephen King. I’ve seen quite a few of his films and several TV series he was responsible for, but not once picked up a story by him. Considering he’s such a prolific writer and is the only man around who rival’s Philip K Dick in the number of film adaptations of his works, it’s kinda surprising to me that I haven’t read one of his stories before now. Right now I’m torn between The Gunslinger, the first in his acclaimed Dark Tower series, or Under the Dome, one of his more recent novels that I’ve had recommended to me by several friends. If I have time to spare, I may very well end up trying both, but I’m only going to make a point of reading one of them.